Sleuth Kings – Case 011: Midnight Secrets (Review)

Location: Your Home!

Players:  We recommend 1-4

Price: $29.95 per box

Crime in abstract.

Theme:

The Dayton Art Museum has recently been hit by a notorious art thief! An alert security guard noticed someone fishy skulking about, and gave chase, but unfortunately, the culprit was able to get away! One of their most valuable pieces, “Midnight Secrets,” was taken, but according to surveillance cameras, the painting may still be inside the museum. In fact, someone on staff must be behind the crime, as no alarms were tripped and all exits were covered by a top of the line security system. It’s up to you and Sullivan to piece together the clues to figure out who is working with the Midnight Thief and track down the painting before it disappears for good!

Of all the offices in all the world, she had to walk into mine.

First Impressions:

I’m always excited when it comes time for another Sleuth Kings mystery, and this month was no different! Once the box arrives, I always wait for my fiancé to be ready to start the adventure, but before putting the case away until then, I noticed was that Sleuth Kings has another super snazzy box! (Pictured above.) The artwork for this one is pretty amazing, and provides a glimpse into Sullivan King’s appropriately Noir world. This small change was enough to make me want to open Case 011 up early, but I was good and waited.

Immerse yourself into the mysteries of art!

High Points:

Sleuth Kings is always great at coming up with new and exciting themes from month to month, and the art heist Sullivan is investigating this month is a fantastic idea! The puzzles include excellently themed props, and provide a mixture of tactile and logic based puzzles for a varied and well crafted adventure. One of the strongest points of Sleuth Kings is the side stories that are told between the lines of the puzzle threads, and Midnight Secrets continues this fun tradition, while twisting it slightly to provide some extra breadcrumbs along the way. This easter egg provided a fun little side theory while I was solving, and expanded the experience without being a major or required element. The story itself is tightly woven, and kept us immersed from start to finish, managing to keep the stakes high while delivering on a lighter theme! Conversations with Sullivan continue to become more exciting every case, and the details of some of the climactic events were a blast to read. This case also sets up a few hanging threads, prepping for a sequel much like Cases 007 and 008! I cannot wait to see how the story evolves from here. Finally, this was our 8th case solved, so we’re excitedly waiting for the next bonus case, tying into the disappearance of Sullivan’s father!

Another satisfying conclusion, with the promise of another bonus case!

Low Points:

The puzzle that stumped us was great, though we were stuck on it for quite a while and could not determine how we could figure out the method of solving, even with the two hints we got from Sullivan, which basically told us what we already knew. After those hints, the only other avenue was to allow Sullivan to reveal the answer, but fortunately, Sleuth Kings provided great customer service when we contacted them via their Facebook page, and they sent us an extra hint so we could overcome the speed bump we’d hit. A small bit of built in cluing, or hints that were for further along in the puzzle would’ve helped a lot.

Verdict:

Midnight Secrets is a fantastic adventure that continues to deliver Sleuth King’s amazing brand of well plotted storylines and clever puzzling. I 100% recommend subscribing, and definitely think it’d be worth your while to pick this one up from the archives in preparation for Case 012! You can use the promo code ESCAPEADVENTURE to get $5 off your subscription here! You can also read the rest of our Sleuth Kings reviews here!

8.5/10 (Great)

Full Disclosure: Sleuth Kings provided a complementary box.